Being one of the first to buy and fly this model when I outfitted it with the reccomended rim-fire motors it was a disaster. Second flight broke wing in half and tore floats off , plus nacelle damage and minor fuse cracks. Put her aside for a while and thought about the burn pile or modify it. Modify won out so I made new motor mounts and installed E-ftite 480's in it. Reworked the nacelles, and rebuilt the wing. So now the set up is the 480's, castle 30amp esc's, Counter rotating MAS 9/7 3 blade props. Also added a heli heading hold gyro I had in inventory. Used thin CA dribbled in from the inside to seal the minor stress cracks in the fuse. When I recovered the wing center section I used Ultracote vs. Monocote as I find it easier to work with at lower temps.. RTF weight is 4.25 Flew the revamped version this morning and really now enjoyed it. She flies heavy as a lot of my warbirds do but that is fine with me. Great speed range now with these motors. Stalls straight but violent breakaway as this model is no floater.Tracks straight as an arrow with the little gyro in her. So now I find it to be a fun little stand-off scale model. Flies quite a bit heavier then my G.P. PBY. Sorry no photos as I don't know how to post them. Enjoy, donnie

Ok, I subscribed to this thread and read all the posts. Now, if the rimfires are so expensive, which some say are a tad underpowered, there are no rimfires that are bigger that will fit from what I have been able to see on the TH website, then what are the best alternatives to them?? I don't want to do a lot of modification to the motor mounts, other than taking out the blind nuts and putting in more blind nuts in the mount.

No matter what, you'll have to drill new holes. The Rimfire400 has a triangular bolt pattern that is not compatible with anything else. Your biggest limitation with new motors will be the motor length... I don't think there's much space between the firewall and the cowl to go with a longer motor ("maybe" you could go to 35mm), but you can step up in diameter a little.

I am not sure why folks feel the Widgeon is underpowered with the Rimfires. No, it won't hover, but it will make large loops from level flight and fly any other non-scale basic aerobatics you might be inclined to throw in between splash and go's. As to the price, of course there are less expensive options out there, but with most you will also increase your installation effort and quite likely at a reduced level of vendor support. It is all a tradeoff, like most things in life, but honestly, I can't imagine you not being very happy with this model as originally designed and equipped.

I am not sure why folks feel the Widgeon is underpowered with the Rimfires. No, it won't hover, but it will make large loops from level flight and fly any other non-scale basic aerobatics you might be inclined to throw in between splash and go's. As to the price, of course there are less expensive options out there, but with most you will also increase your installation effort and quite likely at a reduced level of vendor support. It is all a tradeoff, like most things in life, but honestly, I can't imagine you not being very happy with this model as originally designed and equipped.

I'm planning on using Hacker A20-22L's, which are about 3mm longer in the length measurement than the 30mm that the Rimfire motor drawing shows. The Hackers only cost about $5 more than the Rimfires. I'm sure there are cheaper motors also per the links posted above.

I received my Hackers today and found that they had changed the design since I last bought one. As a result the distance from the back of the motor to the face of the prop adapter is now about 38.5mm vs. the 30mm of the rimfire. I'm sure the motors would still work but from a looks standpoint might stick out more than I care for. Kit is due in on Wednesday, so I'll have to see what it all looks like. I can always use the Hackers somewhere else if needs be.

I bought this plane at a auction last month. It looked like it had never been flown and was in perfect shape with stock Rimfires. Had the Futaba servos and came with a battery all for $145.
I wanted to fly it off land first before I tried the the water take off. I removed the water rudder and tip floats.
I had a good study 15 MPH wind and held the plane above my head and full power made it want to pitch down so moved my hand forward and tried full power again and with the little up trim I added to the elevator it flew stright out and away. Needed very little triming and at full power loops were as big as you would want. Tried some power off stalls and it held in there....but if you forced it...it would wing over. Not a big deal for the wing area and weight.
After five minutes I brought it in against the steady wind with a full stall landing in the grass.
I am happy with it. The floats are back on and next summer we are ready.